Olyira Red Rider
by Thais of the Star
Summary: A clutch of eggs contianing the nocturnal, colorful nightdragons has been laid, and now, those scorned may be the last hope for Pern as Thread falls when the others are unable to fight.
1. Changes in the Weyr

_Disclaimer_: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

Enjoy!

PS: Each of the poems at the beginning of the chapters are mine, so please don't steal them from me. I worked hard on them!

_Golden there rises the dragon-queen true_

_To see hatchlings, and not just bronze to blue;_

_From a strange, new white runnerbeast_

_Come changes- in ways we expect them least:_

_Dragons of all colors, and lovely to the sight,_

_And fierce, though they awake only at night!_

Chapter One: _Changes in the Weyr_

Tilardith, the senior queen of the new Weyr, Nais Weyr, had risen in a mating flight, and been flown by Ligolenath again, to no ones' surprise. It was common knowledge that Aeo and Th'nayoin were as devoted to each other, as were Tilardith and Ligolenath, as Lessa and F'lar of Benden were. Nothing was unusual about the flight, but it was the effects of a strange runnerbeast that was the talk of Pern for Turns to come.

No one knew how the strange runnerbeast had gotten into the heard when Aeontellai's Tilardith had blooded. It was an odd specimen, and perhaps if not for it, many a candidate would have been without a dragon.

The runnerbeast had been an odd one, white-silver with a drop-shaped patch of rust-colored fur on its nose. When the Nais queen rose, she had scooped this one up first to blood.

After the clutching, the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman counted a full sixty-eight eggs hardening on the Hatching Grounds. It was one of the largest clutches any person on Pern had ever heard of. There were about seventy-five hopefuls to be presented to the hatchlings, a mixture of both boys and girls.

Aeo and Th'nayoin had agreed to let girls try to Impress greens, since they had found, in a very tucked-away niche in Fort Weyr, Records that the girls were quite useful on green dragons, and that the tradition of presenting female candidates to the female eggs had faded over many, many Turns.

Surprisingly, and not quite as a good omen some believed, a large blue was the first to hatch after the dragons had ceased the throbbing humming that announced the arrival of baby dragons. However, the fifth or sixth to hatch was the first to Impress. New bronze rider Q'mai, formerly Qaimai, and his ravenous little bronze Demath walked off the Hatching Grounds proudly.

More dragons hatched, Impressed, and left to receive their first meals. About five of the aproximatly twenty green dragons hatched that day chose female riders, and were escorted to a separate Weyrling barracks from the male riders and their dragons.

To those spectators who had seen previous hatching ceremonies, including the Weyrfolk, it seemed odd that there were not only a very small number of greens and blues, but also there seemed to be almost two different stages- there were still a little over twenty eggs left when the queen and her rider finally left, following the young bronze, green, blue and brown dragons, leaving the remaining about twenty-five lads and lasses desperate to Impress.

But it was only when Olyira Impressed that each person in Benden Weyr went pale.

Because young Olyira from the Weyr itself had Impressed Vuith, a red dragon.

000

Olyira's Vuith was not a single freak, alone in her kind, as Ruth the white dragon had been. The scarlet-hided dragon was but one in a total of twenty-two strangely nocturnal dragons. They were hatchlings whose colors came in anything from a pale pink to a deep orange, from silver to a deep burgundy, and also in yellows, purples, black and any other color, it seemed to the people of Pern.

This sudden change in dragon's colors seemed to originate from the strange runnerbeast Tilardith had blooded before her mating flight. Aeontellai and Th'nayoin had the task, as Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Nais Weyr, to tell the guests their suspicions. Many of the Holders were skeptical, and some even thought that perhaps the senior queen had been timing it too much, though in reality she and her rider had tried to avoid that as much as possible.

The new dragons did not appear aware in any way that they were "Defective! A disgrace to Nais, and to all of Pern!" as one half-sober, hide-bound old blue rider put it as he was dragged from the Impression Feast for his loud, unceasing disruptions.

000

Olyira settled herself beside strange new friend on her own bed. It was most unusual, she thought, but Vuith almost seemed to have a luminescence about her hide. Though not visible fully, it seemed that a faint ruby glow lit the platform she was curled up asleep on.

Her new Weyrmate smiled, and turned away as her thoughts strayed into sleep, in which glowing dragons rose into the indigo night sky to flame Thread while she and Vuith watched and did some flaming of their own in their wings

Though no one know it then, the Nightdragons, as they were called when a distinct tendency to awaken at night was discovered, were to prove vital to the survival of Pern.


	2. At the Door

_Disclaimer_: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

_A sudden knock at the door-_

'_Come, let us seek lizard-lore!'_

_Says the dragonrider_

'_Open the door wider!'_

Chapter Two: _At the Door_

Olyira woke suddenly, aware of a fierce hunger- Vuith's, not her own. The rider rose, somewhat startled, to find that she was not in the Weyrling barracks, and felt panic rise until Vuith reminded her, between complaints of hunger, that she was in the new quarters for herself and her dragon. Their _permanent_ quarters.

"Let's get you fed," the young dragonrider said to her dragon as she slapped the brilliant scarlet hide affectionately, and yawned. It was still strange to sleep during the light hours and wake at dusk, the time it was now, she reflected. As Olyira swung up onto her still-slightly-growing dragon's neck, she yawned again. While the great scarlet dragon unfurled her vast wings and dropped lightly off the cliff, her rider thought back to the previous dusk.

_"You know, I think both of you are ready to move to your permanent weyr," the reasonably young Weyrlingmaster, B'gaz, told Olyira as he gave Vuith's wing a last pat before letting her fold it to her backbone again. Both the dragon and her rider responded with thankful and appreciative noises, though they were very different from each._

"_I see no reason for you to delay any longer, though she'll still grow a little more." He grinned as the young woman groaned; she wondered how she would keep up with all the oiling and cleaning she needed to do for her wonderful red-hided companion. "In fact, I'll suggest to Weyrleader Th'nayoin that you fly in the next Threadfall._

_"Oh, would you really?" asked Olyira excitedly as Vuith made a surprised and eager noise of her own?_

_"I will. And the rest of you Nightdragons as well." The red dragonrider saw again the strange expression pass over his _face as he looked at her, but she ignored it "But now I must tell the other new riders," he said and beckoned to his blue. "Well," he amended, stroking his dragons' azure hide when he set his forearm next to his rider to make mounting easier. "Zulbath and I must tell them."

_The younger dragonrider looked up at the blue, surprised to see that her red Vuith was nearly his size, and nodded farewell and thanks to B'gaz. She draped an arm around her dragon's leg._

_Now Olyira wondered just what_ had been in B'gaz's eyes then. Landing! Vuith told her rider in warning just as the red dragon settled neatly on a ledge, and her rider slipped off with ease. "Now go eat, dear. And not too much!" Olyira said affectionately to her life-long friend. 

000

"Rider Olyira?" a voice called tentatively through the door.

"Yes?" the red rider replied, straightening up from her crouch; she had been oiling a rough patch on her dragons' tail. Vuith chirped. _It is B'gaz_, she said in surprise.

"B'gaz?" asked Olyira in surprise.

"Yes," the man replied in kind. "How- ah." He glanced at the bronze fire-lizard that clung to his shoulder then at Vuith's head, which was stuck through the door to her weyr, and shook his head "Anyway, Olyira, the Weyrleader has informed me that you and the rest of the Nightdragons and Nightriders may fly Thread tomorrow. Fall is schedualed to be just about at sunrise, so you and the rest of the nocturnal dragons should be a great asset to- oh!"

In her happiness at at last being able to fight Thread, of finally proving once and for all to Pern that the Nightdragons were true dragons, Olyira had impulsivly flung her arms around the neck of the Weyrlingmaster and given him a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh, thank you, B'gaz! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cried. "Thank you so much!"

A face matching Vuith's hide gave the scarcely older dragonrider an interesting look when the Nightrider released him, grinning broadly in a half-apologetic sort of way. Both of them ignored the outraged shrieks of his little bronze fire-lizard.

He cleared his throat. Stuffed hands that trembled into his wher-hide jacket pockets, then looked up at the chattering lizard, who was circling them from the air.

"And, thanks to this funny little one, I remembered the other thing I was to tell you- that you and I are to go to certain beaches that have been reported as promising in the past and find fire-lizard clutches. We are to either mark them for Nais Weyr if they are to soft to be moved, or to bring them back here directly if they wer anywhere near hatching hardness." he told her. "Also, we are given leave to stay out overnight, several if necicary. Our Weyrleader has also said that if there is no chance of getting a clutch back here before it is to hatch, that we may bring meat scraps to Impress ourselves."

"Truly?" asked Olyira, astonished.

"Yes," the Weyrling master replied, and grinned. "We are to go at noon and do most of our actual raiding just at dusk, so queens will not be on the alert. Your dragon is going to be more active than my Zulbath. In fact, as I have proved the dragonrider most willing to go on another's dragon, Zulbath is to stay behind while I come with you."

"Oh, shards- I know you hat to leave him. You don't realy have to, do you?" she protested.

"Neither my dragon nor I are in any way opposed to this venture." He told her. "I shall come be with my things –be sure to get yours tonight or tomorrow– around midafternoon."

And that finalized it.


	3. Revelation on the Beach

_Disclaimer_: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

_Be careful- gently give her your kiss,_

'_least forever her heart you miss_

Chapter Three: _Revelation on the Beach_

As they burst out of the cold of between Olyira was once again conscious of the proximity of the Weyrlingmaster behind her. As did all back-seat riders, he held onto her wide riding belt. Vuith landed neatly on a bluff just above the sandy shore of the southern beach.

Swiftly Olyira undid the flying straps and opened her jacket. Up in the Weyr it was always rather cool; here she was unused to such intense heat. Behind her B'gaz shucked his riding gear as well, and the Nightrider could not resist a peak at him as she dismounted.

After piling all the materials they would not need in a pile with Vuith to guard them and packing all those things they did need, the two dragonriders set out onto the beach. It was warm, and they found themselves sweating under the sun, so eventually B'gaz suggested that there were ripe redfruit trees growing just up ahead.

They gratefully ate the moist fruit, then continued into the coming dusk. Just as the Weyrlingmaster turned to the young woman Olyira froze, and looked down. Distracted, B'gaz looked and inhaled sharply. In the near-night she had stepped onto just one egg in a clutch of fire-lizard eggs. She carefully lfted her foot, and gasped in sorrow to see the mess she had made of that one egg.

The pair found that the rest of the nest contained thirty-two eggs, all of them just hard enough to take back to the Weyr, and so they packed them cautiously into a sack brought for just that purpose and heaped dry, warm sand around them in the bag. B'gaz and Olyira then buried the sack in more sand, a ways off to the side of the clutch's former position, and spread out their things for the night.

In the morning, it was B'gaz who woke first. The blue rider lifted his head into the post-dawn light and them glanced at Olyira, who was still asleep with one hand outstretched onto the sack of lizard eggs. He smiled tenderly, then gently moved her hand of the bag and checked the sand. Lukily, the sand was still rather warm, as he had no warmer sand he replaced them.

A shadow crossed his face as he looked down at Olyira from his kleeling position beside her. Then, hesitantly, he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, lightly enough so as not to disturb her. B'gaz drew back, and woke her properly.

There was no sign in him as to what he had done, and Olyira did not know.

000

By the time they were finished packing in new sand in with the eggs the sun was at high noon. They turned back with the sack of fire-lizard eggs and made their way to Vuith over the course of the day. When they came within sight of the lovely red dragon, her rider let her know that they were back.

The Nightdragon yawned and grumbled a little, but when they were properly dressed in wher-hide, they were sweating.

"We'll just drop this off with the Weyrleaders, and then come back to find more," said the slightly older dragonrider in Olyira's ear as Vuith leapt skyward.

After leaving the eggs to Weyrwoman Aeontellai and Weyrleader Th'nayoin the two humans and the dragon tried at another beach. B'gaz kept watching the red rider, and finally, as they were dismounting at the third beach, having had no success at the second even though they had spent a day and a half there, Olyira grew impatient.

"All right, B'gaz. What's the matter. You're watching me like a wherry hen and I'd like to know why," she said where they were both on the ground below Vuith. When the older dragonrider shook his head, she glared at him. B'gaz tried to turn away from her but she grabbed his arm, and held him.

"What is it," she demanded, staring into his eyes. He stared right back, and his expression was alien

"I can't…" he whispered, looking away finally. "Please, don't ask me to."

"What is it that you can't tell me?" Olyira glared at him, and grabbed his other arm; he made no move to stop her as she gripped his forearms. "What is it?"

Again they stared at each other, the blue rider's brown eyes enigmatic and elusive, the red rider's blue-gray eyes stubborn and determined.

Then, suddenly, he pulled his arms free, took her shoulders and pulled her to him. She struggled in surprise, and he crushed all the wind out of her as he held her in a kiss as fierce as if she were the rider of a green on a mating flight and his the blue that had flown her. Yet, somehow sweet, long, gentle and tender.

She went limp with shock, then closed her eyes and responded. It was a long time before she could do anything even after he slowly released her mouth.

"Oh," she said weakly, looking down and rubbing her lips with her fingers. The par knelt in the sand side by side as he kept one arm about her waist. For a while they just sat there. B'gaz looked at her, and hoped he had not destroyed any chance between them from a premature revelation of his feelings. After all, she was still young, and he was about eight Turns older.

And then, slowly, she turned towards him and looked into his eyes searching in them for something. Olyira leaned into his hold and rested her head on his shoulder, and B'gaz pulled her slightly closer to him and tilted his head to lean on hers.

Finally, she turned her head up to him and brushed her lips to his, and he responded gently this time, careful not to rush her until she was ready, in a long, sweet kiss. He did not want to hasten and destroy their relationship before it had even begun.


	4. Fire Lizard

_Disclaimer_: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

_A Hatchling cracks its shell and turns;_

_Now which its one to Impress it discerns._

Chapter Four: _Fire Lizard_

It was a long walk. Olyira felt partially drawn to B'gaz and partially repelled from him through the day, and she dreaded the night, and what it might inspire the blue rider to do. But as the moons climbed high and they spread their furs onto the sand he showed no desire to rush her, for which the Nightrider was grateful.

She was nowhere near ready to let their relationship reach _that_ level, but she could not deny the thrill that she felt when B'gaz held and kissed her. When they were lying in their furs the Weyrlingmaster looked over at her, and she met his gaze with a smile to which he responded.

Gently, still as if afraid she might run away, he put his hand under her chin and brought himself close enough to kiss her, long, tenderly and as gently as if she could break at any time. She trembled with the sweetness of the kiss, and remained motionless.

"Goodnight," he whispered as he released her, and she managed to smile and nod at him.

000

In the morning he woke her with a kiss; already packed up his own things, he helped her with her own things and they continued on their search for fire lizard eggs. It was nearly noon when two things happened simultaneously.

First, they heard a snap and the squeal of a runnerbeast in pain. Second, B'gaz spotted a clutch of fire-lizard eggs in the sand.

"I'll go check on what that was," the blue rider said, pointing to where they could still hear an animal thudding around in pain, "and you take care of those," he said, gesturing now at the mound of sand.

Olyira nodded with a smile and knelt to begin rooting at the sand gingerly. She heard the man leave and walk out in search of the injured beast. As she felt the first of the eggshells, she knew something was not right. The shell was moving.

As she uncovered more moving eggshells, she realized that all was right. A hatching!

"B'gaz! They're hatching!" she cried, frantic that they might die, for there was no source of food near. Then she heard the man trotting back, and saw him pulling along a small, dead runnerbeast, its throat cut and on leg twisted askew. He pulled the undersized animal over and pealed away the skin from the leg.

"Here- take some meat. Grab the one you want, and feed it. Talk to it. Tell it how much you love it and want it to stay with you." B'gaz rattled off instructions until the first shell cracked. Then he saw the glistening head and rocked back on his heels. "Let's let them all hatch; that way you can decide which one you want easier," he suggested, and Olyira nodded, transfixed on the scene before her.

At last there were only a three eggs left, none of them rocking, so she looked in the mass of lizards feasting on the dead runnerbeast. She saw a pathetic golden form a reached hesitantly out, gently but firmly grasping the queen lizard and stuffing the meat that she still held in her hand into the little creatures' mouth. It took the queen some time to get the large piece down her throat, and by the time she was done Olyira had another piece ready and was cutting more off the runner; B'gaz helped by sending off the wild hatchlings and slicing when he could.

Finally, the younger of the two dragonriders straitened up, the queen half asleep in her arms, and looked at B'gaz. "Why didn't you try to Impress like I did? But thank you for helping," she added hastily.

"Great shells! I've already got my Sloy back at the Weyr. One's quite enough for me," he told her with a grin, and Olyira had to smile back at him.

By now the wild fire-lizards had dispersed, and they turned back to begin the march back to Vuith.

000

They found no eggs at either of the next to beaches, but at their sixth beach they found a queen still laying her clutch. Olyra and B'gaz crept away from her and marked the spot in their minds for collecting the clutch later on. At the seventh beach they found another clutch, and there were two at the eighth. By then they were exhausted from tramping up and down the beaches.

All told, when the got back from the eighth beach and reported to the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman they had a grand total of one Impressed queen for Olyra, one clutch that would be checked on frequently until judged ready for taking, another that could be gathered in two sevendays and four already-collected clutches amounting to a total of ninety-one fire lizard eggs ready to be dispersed and another fifty-eight that would be ready after they were hard enough to move.

The pair was so successful that the Weyrleaders sent them out at the same time next Turn, with their own lizards trained to find the clutches of others, when Olyira and Vuith were not exhausted from their fight against Thread at night.

Over the Turn Vuith had grown into a strong, fine beast. The weyrfolk discovered that they and their riders had a particular talent: they were not just more active during the day, but the joking 'nocturnal' habits they had been born with actually were nocturnal activity. The Nightdragons and Nightriders were most useful for fighting Thread that Fell at night or in the late evening. Now that, as the Red Star had been altered in its course, Thread was falling many times at night, this became a necessity well appreciated.

Weyrwoman Aeontellai and Weyrleader Th'nayoin recognized the potential in the abilities of the Nightdragons and Nightriders, and the abnormal dragons and riders were ordered to fight only at night. This was not the most easy of jobs, for, as the Red Star had been pushed out of orbit, Thread was falling more a night than it had ever been before, and so the nocturnal dragons and their riders, who were converted to being nocturnal because of their dragon's habits, fought at least once every sevenday, and sometimes up to three or four times a week.

At least the colorful dragons had help; the watch-whers assisted them whenever they could, and were a great asset to the team. A Turn passed, and then others.

Olyira found that she had little time during the day to spend with B'gaz, who had resigned his post as Weyrlingmaster to free up as much of his time as possible to be with her.

They still found clutches, but if Thread Fell, they had to time it to get there in time to be able to drop off the blue rider, and it began to take a toll on Olyira. Vuith, as all dragons, was immune to the time-paradox stress that affected her rider.

But nothing could keep them from aging as the long Turns went by.


	5. Fredom Under the Stars

_Disclaimer_: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

Note: Nothing in The Skies of Pern, by Anne McCaffery, as any relation to this chapter because I haven't read it, so don't kill me if I don't include whatever happens after Thread ends in her book. This is my version of the last Threadfall on Pern.

_With a fierce, echoing cry,_

_Dragons soar into the sky;_

_A last battle against the Red Star_

_As they flame their enemy to char._

Chapter Five: _Freedom Under the Stars_

Olyira fastened her riding leathers and vaulted to Vuith's neck. She grabbed the fighting straps just as the aging red dragon leapt into the night sky in a swift movement, though neither was quite so healthy or agile as they had been in their youth. Her queen fire-lizard, Sunset, followed them with a grace the Nightdragon and her Nightrider could no longer match. They were both past their prim, and both knew it.

As they took their place in their wing, Olyira looked around. Over the Turns Nais Weyr had changed. There were very few night-fighting, colorfull dragons left, but, then again, this was the first Fall in three Sevendays over all of Pern, and likely the last as the effects of the change in the orbit of the Red 'Star' finally played out. Nightleader Rlakan and her pink Nightdragon, Corrsoth, passed on the word to go _between_.

Vuith and the rest disappeared to appear just over the new Seawatch Hold, founded only a few kilometers away from Cove Hold. The stars and moons sparkled off the bits of mettle on the dragon's and their rider's tack, reflected off the sea, shone on the dragon's eyes and glinted over the eye pieces of the dragon rider's flying goggles- and then it shimmered and rippled over the silvery Thread as if began to Fall over the water.

Each Nightdragon and watch-wher let out a challenging roar. The dragons, their hides' colors bright and visible in the moon- and star-light, turned their heads to their riders, who dosed out the fire-stone. With a grinding noise, the dragons chewed the phosphine-bearing rock, getting ready to meet Thread.

Sorrow filled Olyira's mind as she thought back on the dragonriders who had been killed by the menace which she had combated nearly her entire life- sorrow for B'gaz, who had been Threaded some Falls ago, for many a rider she had known. Looking around, Olyira could see that, of the original twenty-three Nightdragons and Nightriders, there was only herself and her red Vuith, pink Corrsoth and his rider Rlakan, yellow-green Kyith and her rider N'jawn and shimmering, oil-black Oleetath and W'nond.

Four nocturnal dragons out of twenty-three. At least there were plenty of watch-whers to help the tiny wing of dragons; they had been thrown out of many Holds, now technology had given better, more reliable, day-and-night alarms to holds, Crafthalls and Weyrs. Most Wher-handlers and their bonded friends had come to Seawatch Hold, were they were trained to actually go swimming to tack with dolphins, who had been taught to form a relay with the heat-sighted, misshapen dragon-lice creatures.

Through this, the new age of Dolphin wher-speakers had come. These trios were helping the Pernese find the past at the bottom of the ocean. But Olyira brought herself back to the present with a jolt. She needed to concentrate on here and now. With a ringing cry, Vuith rallied her rider and dove flaming at aclump of Thread.

Olyira, Nightrider of red Vuith, one of the four last Nightdragons, let her heart soar outwards with no thought to anything other than riding her dragon and doing what she did best.

With an echoing roar, Vuith and Olyira defied the future, and whatever it might throw at them. For now, pride, hope, joy, sorrow, defiance and anger were one. For now, the present was enough.

For now, they were _free_.


End file.
